Solana’s Colosseum has closed a $60 million funding round for its first fund dedicated to developing its accelerator program for startups. 

The capital will be used for pre-seed investments in teams accepted into Colosseum’s Accelerator program — designed to bring more developers and startups into the Solana ecosystem.

“We started Colosseum to enable founders to compete and realize their product vision without the geographic restrictions of traditional accelerator models. It’s evident that there is a market demand for novel, specialized venture products in crypto,” said Colosseum co-founder Clay Robbins.

Colosseum is an independent organization that focuses on growing the Solana ecosystem through various initiatives, including virtual hackathons and its accelerator program. Projects selected for this program are granted a $250,000 pre-seed investment, along with access to Solana’s network of mentors and venture funds.

Colosseum has been leading Solana’s hackathons since January 2024, when the Solana Foundation handed over some of its initiatives to the group. Under the foundation’s organization, the hackathons managed to attract more than 60,000 participants through eight programs that have run since 2020. Hackathon participants have reportedly launched 4,000 products and raised over $600 million in venture funding.

Earlier this year, Colosseum hosted its first hackathon for the Solana Foundation, which attracted 8,000 builders from 95 countries. The program received over 1,000 product submissions during a five-week competition.

“We are committed to providing a space where both hackathon participants and accelerator founders have the resources needed to excel,” said Nate Levine, co-founder of Colosseum.

A majority of venture-backed startups in the Solana ecosystem had their genesis in Solana’s hackathons, a spokesperson told Cointelegraph. Over $650 million in venture capital has been raised by startups, with total valuations in the billions.

As of January 2024, the Solana ecosystem had more than 2,500 monthly active developers on open-source repositories.

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